Topic: Health Coverage

Oklahoma needs Medicaid expansion yesterday 

Oklahoma’s Medicaid expansion is long overdue, but focusing attention on a July 1 start date overlooks an important fact: there is nothing preventing Oklahoma from expanding Medicaid now, and Gov. Stitt should act to do so as soon as possible.  [More...]

Governor should extend health care comment period as virtual ‘public hearings’ lack transparency, full representation

As Oklahomans are rightly turning their attention to our nation’s urgent health emergency, Gov. Stitt should withdraw his health care proposal, or at the very least, extend the comment period to allow as many Oklahomans to participate.  [More...]

COVID-19 crisis shows the need for health care now. Here’s three things lawmakers can do to protect Oklahomans’ health care. 

There are many things the state can do to address the issues, but here are three actions state policymakers must immediately take. [More...]

Medicaid expansion: An opportunity to improve financial health

With 14 percent of residents uninsured, a significant portion of Oklahomans are at risk of incurring financially devastating medical debt. An important yet often overlooked outcome of Medicaid expansion is the positive impact it has on the financial well-being of beneficiaries. [More...]

New report shows number of uninsured children rising in Oklahoma

The report found that 8.2 percent of Oklahoma children in 2018 did not have health insurance, up from 8.1 percent the previous year. [More...]

Census data confirms we must do more to help Oklahoma children and families

New data from the Census Bureau shows that poverty in Oklahoma is still well above the national average. In 2018, nearly 1 in 6 Oklahomans (15.6 percent) lived below the poverty line, earning less than $25,100 for a family of… Read more [More...]

There are no good reasons not to expand Medicaid

It’s been over seven years since states first began expanding Medicaid to cover low-income working-age adults. To date, 37 states (including the District of Columbia) have opted to expand coverage, and not a single state having done so has since… Read more [More...]

Want healthier moms? Expand Medicaid

As a state, Oklahoma cares a lot about children and families, but we sometimes forget that a mother’s health is a critical piece of family health. When women are healthy, they have healthier pregnancies, healthier babies, and healthier families. But too many Oklahoma women die of child-birth related causes, and too many Oklahoma babies don’t live to see their first birthday. [More...]

Medicaid expansion could help address Oklahoma’s surging meth crisis

In 2017, methamphetamine (also known as speed or ice) was one of the main contributors to Oklahoma’s overdose deaths. It’s difficult to recover from methamphetamine addiction — most individuals relapse within their first year of treatment. Medicaid expansion would allow the state to serve lower-income populations that are affected by meth use by making addiction treatment available to a greater portion of the state. [More...]

Trump Administration reaches right decision for wrong reasons on partial Medicaid expansion (Guest Post: Jessica Schubel)

The Administration’s decision to deny enhanced federal funding for partial expansion will protect coverage for millions of people who have it. It should also spur more states that have been considering partial expansion or other alternatives, such as Georgia and Oklahoma, to move forward with full expansion instead. [More...]